Method and mechanism for managing incompatible changes in a distributed system

• US 20050257211A1
• Filed: 05/12/2004
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Srivastava, Alok Kumar, Joshi, Sameer, Chatterjee, Surojit
• Granted Patent: US 7,921,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/656 while running

Abstract

A method and mechanism for managing data to resolve incompatibilities between different versions of data is disclosed. According to one approach, incompatibilities to private data is managed using group/member dependent key(s)/link(s), static shared data is managed using group/member dependent key(s)/link(s), and dynamic shared data is managed using data transformation function(s).

Claims

1. A method for managing data relating to an operation that may cause an incompatibility for the data, the method comprising:

determining if the data is already implemented using a group dependent indexing structure;

if the data is not already implemented using the group dependent indexing structure, then implementing the data using the group dependent indexing structure;

performing the operation that may cause the incompatibility for the data.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the data is implemented using the group dependent indexing structure by a developer that create an application related to the data.

3. The method of claim 2 in which the group dependent indexing structure is a group dependent key.

4. The method of claim 2 in which the group dependent indexing structure is created in anticipation of a change which creates the incompatibility.

5. The method of claim 1 in which operation comprises a rolling upgrade or downgrade operation associated with the data.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the data is used by or related to application software, operating systems software, firmware, or a hardware device.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the group dependent indexing structure is configured as a member dependent indexing structure.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the group dependent indexing structure is created as part of a version of a related software application.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the group dependent indexing structure is created using a mechanism that is external to a related software application.

10. The method of claim 1 in which multiple different versions of the data co-exist.

11. The method of claim 10 in which the multiple different versions co-exist over an indeterminate period of time.

12. The method of claim 1 in which the data comprises hierarchical data, relational data, or unstructured data.

13. The method of claim 1 in which the data comprises private data, static shared data, or dynamic shared data, and in which the act of implementing the data using the group dependent indexing structure comprises:

managing private data with a group dependent key or link;

managing static shared data with a group dependent link or key; and

managing dynamic shared data with a data transformation function.

14. The method of claim 13 in which the group dependent key provides a private data with a global namespace.

15. The method of claim 14 in which the global namespace is a global key.

16. The method of claim 13 in which the group dependent key has only a single associated member.

17. The method of claim 16 in which the group dependent key is a member dependent key.

18. The method of claim 13 in which the group dependent link is a member dependent link having a single member associated with the group dependent link.

19. The method of claim 13 in which the group dependent link establishes a link from a key to a second version of the static shared data.

20. The method of claim 19 in which the link to the second version of the static shared data is only visible to a member associated with the group dependent link.

21. The method of claim 20 in which the link to the second version of the static shared data is not visible to a member not associated with the group dependent link.

22. The method of claim 13 in which the group dependent link is implemented as a link to a member dependent key.

23. The method of claim 13 in which the group dependent link forms a link from a root of a first version of data to the intended root of another version of the data.

24. The method of claim 13 in which the data transformation function automatically transforms an associated data item from a first format for the dynamic shared data to a second format for the dynamic shared data.

25. The method of claim 24 in which the data transformation function transforms the data in both directions.

26. The method of claim 24 in which a group dependent link is established for the dynamic shared data.

27. The method of claim 13 in which the data is managed for a rolling upgrade.

28. The method of claim 1 in which the data comprises web pages, language specific data, or geographic specific data.

29. The method of claim 13 in which the act of managing static shared data with a group dependent link comprises:

identifying a first version of data;

creating a second version of the data at a second location, wherein the second version is not compatible with the first version of the data;

creating a group dependent link from the first version of the data to the second version of the data; and

associating one or more members with the group dependent link, wherein the one or more members are configured to be compatible with the second version of the data.

30. The method of claim 29 in which the group dependent link is from the root of the first version of the data to the root of the second version of the data.

31. The method of claim 29 in which the act of associating one or more members with the group dependent link comprises:

bringing down a member i;

making member i a member of the group associated with the group dependent link;

configuring member i to be compatible with the second version of the data; and

bringing up member i.

32. The method of claim 29 further comprising:

removing the first version of the data.

33. The method of claim 29 in which the act of managing dynamic shared data is implemented with the method further comprising:

creating a data transformation function between the first version and the second version.

34. The method of claim 33 in which the data transformation function automatically performs transformations between a first format associated with the first version and a second format associated with the second version.

35. The method of claim 34 in which the transformations are performed if either the first version or the second version of the data are changed.

36. The method of claim 33 in which multiple data transformation functions are created to handle three or more different versions of the data.

37. A method for managing incompatible data, the incompatible data, the method comprising:

identifying a first version of data;

creating a second version of the data at a second location, wherein the second version is not compatible with the first version of the data;

creating a group dependent link from the first version of the data to the second version of the data; and

associating one or more members with the group dependent link, wherein the one or more members are configured to be compatible with the second version of the data.

38. The method of claim 37 in which the group dependent link is from the root of the first version of the data to the root of the second version of the data.

39. he method of claim 37 in which the act of associating one or more members with the group dependent link comprises:

bringing down a member i;

making member i a member of the group associated with the group dependent link;

configuring member i to be compatible with the second version of the data; and

bringing up member i.

40. The method of claim 39 in which the act of configuring member i to be compatible with the second version of the data is performed by patching software associated with i.

41. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

removing the first version of the data.

42. The method of claim 41 in which the first version of the data is removed only if there are no members still requiring access to the first version.

43. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

creating a data transformation function between the first version and the second version.

44. The method of claim 43 in which the data transformation function automatically performs transformations between a first format associated with the first version and a second format associated with the second version.

45. The method of claim 44 in which the transformations are performed if either the first version or the second version of the data are changed.

46. The method of claim 43 in which multiple data transformation functions are created to handle three or more different versions of the data.

47. A computer program product embodied on computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute a process for managing data relating to an operation that may cause an incompatibility for the data, the method comprising:

determining if the data is already implemented using a group dependent indexing structure;

if the data is not already implemented using the group dependent indexing structure, then implementing the data using the group dependent indexing structure;

performing the operation that may cause the incompatibility for the data.

48. A system for managing data relating to an operation that may cause an incompatibility for the data, the system comprising:

means for determining if the data is already implemented using a group dependent indexing structure;

if the data is not already implemented using the group dependent indexing structure, then means for implementing the data using the group dependent indexing structure;

means for performing the operation that may cause the incompatibility for the data.

49. A computer program product embodied on computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute a method for managing incompatible data, the incompatible data, the method comprising:

identifying a first version of data;

creating a second version of the data at a second location, wherein the second version is not compatible with the first version of the data;

creating a group dependent link from the first version of the data to the second version of the data; and

associating one or more members with the group dependent link, wherein the one or more members are configured to be compatible with the second version of the data.

50. A system for managing incompatible data, the incompatible data, the system comprising:

means for identifying a first version of data;

means for creating a second version of the data at a second location, wherein the second version is not compatible with the first version of the data;

means for creating a group dependent link from the first version of the data to the second version of the data; and

means for associating one or more members with the group dependent link, wherein the one or more members are configured to be compatible with the second version of the data.